Seeking Our Glory Instead Of God's Glory

Over the past couple of years, I have seen a trend in Christians and churches: seeking their own glory, instead of God's. An example of this can be seen in many churches mission statements and how they approach ministry. They say look at us, look at what we are doing over here...leave your church and join ours, because we are most effective. Churches are measuring their effectiveness on growth, not spiritual growth but numerical growth. It seems as though busyness equates to holiness now. What is the deal with this self-centered, self-glorifying method to ministry and the Christian life?

I heard someone today say that their church is effective because they are the only church in their area that has a billboard and ministries for each age group. Is this really what we have come to in measuring the effectiveness of our church...a billboard? This is very disturbing to say the least. Where does God fit into all this busyness? Are we calling people to Jesus as the treasure of their life, or are we calling them to Jesus to buy into another product? The question I have and continue to ask is, 'Is there room for Jesus in our Christianity anymore?'

The Bible tells us that everything was made by Him and for Him...for His Glory, not ours. It seems as though the Western church has bought into this idea of consumerism and have adopted a business ideology for how we do church. Jesus has now become a product that we sell to people, instead of being the Lord and Savior of their lives. We sell them the idea of Heaven as the goal of salvation, instead of God Himself. We don't ask people to come and follow Christ, and follow through with the discipleship process. We instead ask them to accept Jesus and get heaven. We create a church environment that is comfortable for Christians and is effective on giving them a false sense of holiness.

In the end, we have failed to seek God's glory in how we live our lives and conduct our corporate worship services. In essence we are saying to Jesus, 'You are not enough, what you did on the cross wasn't worth it, we need something more.' This is devastating to the church and more importantly robbing God of what is rightfully His, all the glory and honor. How do we move away from this self-serving, self-righteous, self-centered ideology? How do we reclaim lives that long to seek to be satisfied with who God is and has done through Jesus, and seek to bring Him the most glory in how we live our lives? How do we stop calling people to come and look at our churches, and point to the cross and say 'Look at my awesome, mighty, and holy Savior'? It is in the best interest of followers of Christ and the church to turn back to the cross and repent of our religiosity and gain back our total focus on the glory of God. It is rightfully His, and He will pour out His judgment on those who try to take it away from Him.